The playoff round finished in late August, with the group stage draw held last Thursday. While the preliminary rounds of the tournament are always fun to watch and do attract a sizable amount of views, there is no comparison to the group stage.

While the knockout rounds—whether it be qualifying or after the group stage—are always very interesting, the Group Stage features all the best European teams, while also giving the smaller sides a chance to shine.

The Champions League brings together the best players in Europe. Whether they be from the biggest teams, like Real Madrid or Manchester United, or tiny sides from remote locations, such as Nordsjaelland or CFR Cluj, the world's top players will be participating in this year's group stage.

(This is part one of the list, featuring all the teams from Group A to Group D.)

Paris Saint-Germain: Zlatan Ibrahimovich

This list begins with one of Europe's biggest spenders of last summer.

Paris Saint-Germain may not have started their Ligue 1 campaign too well, but are still expected to top Group A in the Champions League.

After such an expensive transfer window, PSG have many great attacking players. Nonetheless, I feel that Zlatan Ibrahimovich is clearly the French side's most important one.

The Swedish striker already has four goals in Ligue 1 and will certainly score many more over the course of the season.

Ibrahimovich is one of the few players known for winning the league with every club he joins. He has won the domestic leagues of Netherlands (with Ajax), Italy (with Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan), and Spain (Barcelona).

Winning the league with his new team might just be his hardest task yet.

PSG may be starting slow this campaign but there is no doubt they have enough quality players to win multiple trophies this year.

Dynamo Kiev: Ideye Brown

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Dynamo Kiev went trophyless last season and will want to perform much better this campaign. Yuri Semin's side were narrowly beaten in the league by rivals Shaktar Donetsk but crashed out early in both the Europa League and the Ukrainian cup.

This season, Kiev will be looking forward to the Champions League.

In the Ukrainian Premier League last year, they were superb defensively, but had problems scoring goals.

Dynamo need their young striker Ideye Brown to put the ball in the net as much as possible.

The Nigerian joined from Sochaux in 2011 and scored 13 total goals last season. He has started this season very well, with seven goals in eight appearances.

Malaga: Javier Saviola

Anderlecht, Milan, Malaga, and Zenit St. Petersburg are the four teams in the group and I feel any of them could qualify for the Round of 16.

I'll start with Malaga. As we know, the Spanish side had financial issues all summer and were forced to get rid of two of their top attackers, Santi Cazorla and Salomon Rondon.

Malaga were great in last season's La Liga, but the Champions League will be difficult for the newcomers.

While the loan deal for Roque Santa Cruz will help Malaga, the free transfer of Javier Saviola is even better.

The Argentinian striker didn't have a great last season for Benfica and it wasn't too surprising that he was released by the Portuguese club. Nevertheless, the former River Plate star has had a great career and remains a top scorer.

Saviola has a good history playing in the Champions League, mainly while on Barcelona in the early 2000's. He also played an important part in Sevilla's 2005-2006 UEFA Cup triumph.

AC Milan: Giampaolo Pazzini

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With Zlatan Ibrahimovich no longer with AC Milan, Giampaolo Pazzini is the Rosoneri's main threat in attack. The Italian striker moved from rival side Inter over the summer and has started his season very well, with a hat-trick in just his second match (against Bologna).

Pazzini has had good spells playing for Fiorentina, Sampdoria, and Inter. The 28-year-old is very familiar with the Italian league, but not as much with European competition.

Milan will be delighted to have Pazzini on their team, especially after his wonderful start to the campaign.

Zenit St. Petersburg: Hulk

Before the early 2000's, Zenit St. Petersburg very rarely featured in European competition. At the end of the 20th century, the Russian side had only played in Europe four times.

Gas company Gazprom invested in the club in 2005 and, since then, Zenit have enjoyed much success.

In the last seven years, they have played in two Champions League, four UEFA Cups and one Europa League. They have also won the Russian league twice in the past three years.

Zenit have made multiple high profile signings since the Gazprom takeover but nobody could have expected the Russian side to sign Hulk.

The Brazilian is one of the world's best strikers and instantly makes Zenit a side to worry about.

Hulk had four great seasons with Porto in which he scored 78 goals and assisted 55 times in 169 appearances. He has lots of experience playing in Europe and helped his former team win the Europa League in 2011.

Real Madrid: Cristiano Ronaldo

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The Group of Death.

This year, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, and Ajax will be competing for two tickets in the knockout round. Quite remarkably, all four of these teams won their domestic leagues last season.

This is one of the toughest groups I've ever seen in the UEFA Champions League. Real and City will be big favorites to qualify but Borussia Dortmund and Ajax will be difficult to overcome.

While it's hard to predict how this game will turn out, it's not hard to choose the most important Real Madrid attacker.

Cristiano Ronaldo is either the best or the second best player at the moment and is coming off his greatest season ever.

In the 2011/2012 campaign, the Portuguese striker scored an astonishing 60 goals in 55 matches. He played a huge role in Real's title triumph and helped the team reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Madrid have hard games ahead of them and they will need Ronaldo at his very best, especially against Manchester City's defense.

Ajax: Miralem Sulejmani

Ajax was denied a spot in last year's Champions League Round of 16 in quite remarkable fashion.

On the final day of the group stage, they were three points ahead of Lyon with a goal difference of eight more than the French side.

As you'll recall, it was Lyon who advanced to the knockout rounds as they beat Dinamo Zagreb 7-1, while Ajax lost to Real Madrid 3-0. The two sides were tied at eight points, but Lyon had a better goal difference at the end of the day.

This year, the task looks even more difficult. They have a harder group than they did last year and sold star defenders Gregory Van der Wiel and Jan Vertonghen over the summer.

Ajax will need Miralem Sulejmani to step up even more this season. The Serbian attacker has started to prove himself over the past two years. He scored 11 Eredivisie goals last season and eight the year before that.

Suljemani is 23-years-old right now and has attracted lots of interest from various top clubs. He played well in the group stage last season, but will want to make a bigger impact this year.